The present invention relates to microscope slide systems and more particularly to such systems for the illumination of opaque particles suspended in a liquid.
At the present time it is known that it is difficult to properly illuminate material containing opaque particles suspended in a liquid and positioned on a slide for microscope examination. For example, a coal slurry comprises micron-sized non-uniform particles of coal which are suspended in oil or water in which the particles are opaque. In many conventional slide systems, the slide illumination is from below and along the axis of the microscope tube. Such light will be scattered by the opaque coal particles. When a photograph is taken of the coal slurry, it will be unclear if there are many opaque particles within the field of view. The use of high-powered illumination, such as a laser beam, does not provide a clearer image, since even such high-powered light beams are dissipated by the opaque particles.
It is important to view coal slurries and similar fuels under a microscope, and to obtain photographic records of the microscope images, in order to obtain engineering and scientific studies, for example, to study the effect that particle size distribution has on combustion. In addition, such microscopic examination is important in the quality control of the manufacture and purchasing of coal slurries.